Direct tax growth plunges to 3.65%

Showing the impact of economic slowdown, the net direct tax collections during first three months of the fiscal registered a marginal growth of 3.65%. The government said in a statement that collections in the April-June period stood at Rs.59,465 crore, up from Rs.57,373 crore in the same period last fiscal.

At the disaggregate level, growth in Corporate Taxes was 3.31% (Rs.35,709 crore as against Rs.34,566 crore), while Personal Income Tax (including FBT and STT) grew at 4.38% (Rs.24,564 crore as against Rs.22,782 crore).

Lower growth in net tax collection was mainly on account of higher tax refund outgo of 52.01% at Rs.17,600 crore in the present quarter as against Rs.11,578 crore in the first quarter last fiscal, according to the government.

Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) recorded a negative growth of 7.56% (Rs.1,031 crore as against Rs.1,115 crore) and Securities Transaction Tax (STT) declined by 9.90% (Rs.1,462 crore as against Rs.1,623 crore) compared to the corresponding period last fiscal.

During the month of June, net collection during stood at Rs.35,307 crore compared to net collection of Rs.34,533 crore during June 2008. Growth in Corporate TDS was 12.1% (Rs.19,584 crore against Rs.17,477 crore last year) and non-government PIT TDS growth was 12.4% (Rs.21,188 crore against Rs.18,849 crore last year) over the month of June.